


Of Khazad and Halflings

by Dorkangel



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Dis is a mama bird, Gen, I have ignored all maps and geography of middle Earth, Little baby characters, Slavery, Timeline What Timeline, What Was I Thinking?, badly written on a bus, don't hurt me, not the Hobbits!, oh no, surprise ending!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 22:32:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1566392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorkangel/pseuds/Dorkangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merry and Pippin are found wandering around in the Iron Hills, having just escaped from slavers.<br/>Thorin decides to rescue the others!</p><p>Oh dear Eru, what was I thinking when I wrote this?</p><p>Update: I've written a similar fic called Rescuing Peregrin Took. Check it out!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Khazad and Halflings

**Author's Note:**

> BONUS!! Contains dodgy Dwarf culture reference, for example the assumption that they come of age at forty, and the probably grammatically wrong Khuzdul!

Of Halflings and Khazad

Children's laughter echoed across the great hills as Fili and Kili chased each other around. Dis, following behind, smiled at them, and listened very carefully to their laughter. She would treasure it while it lasted: this life was often hard and more than once they had gone hungry and there had been no cause at all for the little princelings to laugh.  
Since Fili had come of age, he had been much more serious, more focused on following his Uncle's footsteps, but Kili was just a little baby and it was good to hear them laughing together...  
Very suddenly, it stopped, and after that one moment's pregnant pause, Dis rushed forward, panicking...  
Only to crash into her youngest son running towards her. "What is it? Are you alright? Is Fili hurt?"  
"No, we're great. Come on!" Kili didn't have time to explain. He grabbed his mother by hand and pulled her towards where Fili was kneeling over something in the grass. As they drew closer, she made out a tiny, prone figure, but still couldn't see any features.  
"What is it?" she asked again, though this time directed at the older brother. "I don't know." he said honestly. "A little kid, though." He shifted out of the way a little and she could suddenly see the body of a tiny boy, painfully thin and pale looking, with a bruise on the side of his head, lying on the ground. She gently reached out a hand and he whimpered out a word. "Merry...?"  
"Shh," she said. "You're safe, no one's going to hurt you."  
"Where's Merry?"  
"I don't know."  
She smoothed the boy's auburn curls back from his head and gently picked him up, noting the size of his feet as she did. They were enormous!  
"He dead?" asked Kili quietly, and very, very seriously. "No. He's just been knocked down." explained his mother and he nodded thoughtfully as they turned to go back to the encampment, spinning around for a moment on his heel for one last look around and-  
"Fili, Ma! Look!"  
There was another figure, a little taller than the last, but scarcely as tall as even little Kili, stumbling faintly over the brow of the hill. The three dwarves rushed towards him, and he would have collapsed if not for Fili's supporting arms around him.  
"Hey," said Dis softly, gently lying the first little boy on the ground. "Do you know this boy?"  
"Pip," cried the newcomer. "Pippin, wake up!"  
"Merry?" came that little voice again, and his eyes fluttered open for a second to focus on Merry. "Yeah, Pippin, I'm here."  
Pippin reached a hand up and Merry took it, and then they both near enough collapsed.  
And as difficult as it made it for Fili and Dis to carry them, they didn't let go of each other's hands as they were carried to Thorin's tents in the Dwarf encampment.  
"Who are they?" Thorin had asked, and received no answer from his sister, or indeed from anybody, until Kili tugged his sleeve so he bent to the tiny dwarfling's height and whispered "Merry, and Pippin.", pointing to each other of the little boys in turn.  
"Thank you, Kili. And what are Merry and Pippin doing here?" Kili shrugged and attached himself to Thorin's leg.  
"We don't know." replied Dis. "We just found them, wandering, exhausted, on the moors."  
"And what exactly are they?"  
"Either tiny men with hairy feet, or..."  
"Hobbits." finished Thorin with a frown. "How did Hobbits get this far north?"  
"We don't know."  
The older Hobbit stirred a little, and Dis looked more closely at him. He was not, in fact, such a little boy as she had thought - he was shorter than a dwarf, but that was simply his physiology - he was more of a young man.  
Fili and Kili watched silently, fascinated, and knowing that if the adults remembered they were there they'd probably be sent away to help Dwalin and the others in the forge.  
"Are you awake?" asked Thorin roughly and bluntly, and Dis rolled her eyes at her brother's nonexistent subtlety. The young hobbit opened his eyes at the voice and sat up quickly, startled and nervous. He didn't answer, but he clearly WAS awake.  
"And you're Merry then?"  
"Y-yes."  
"So, Merry, how did you end up wandering the Iron Hills?"  
Merry hesitated, then opened his mouth to answer... Only to be interrupted by the little baby hobbit whimpering beside him. "Pip!"  
"Merry...where are we? Where's the Bagginses and Sam?"  
"I don't know." He shot a curious glance at the dwarves, and Thorin sighed into his unruly beard at the idea of having to wait for answers and explain things.  
"We are the Dwarves of Erebor. Doubtless, Mr Merry, you have heard of Smaug the Terrible?"  
Merry eyes went wide and he nodded, still trying to asses his situation. "And so you know why we are here, but why are you here?"  
Pippin crawled on to Merry's lap and curled up, and Merry took a deep, thoughtful breath.  
"We were staying with Cousin Bilbo-"  
"Mad Baggins." added Pippin wisely.  
"And his nephew lives with him, and the gardener's son was playing with the nephew, and I was watching Pippin and we were all outside, but then some men from Bree-"  
"Big, scary trolls."  
"Men, Pip. Some men from Bree turned up at Cousin Bilbo's and he opened the door and they grabbed him and pulled him away and me and Pip and Sam and Frodo tried to stop them but they grabbed Pippin and Sam too and said they'd hurt them if me and Frodo and Bilbo didn't do what they said, and Pippin and Sam are only little so we didn't dare fight them and they tied us up and then-"  
"And then we were walking for a million miles!"  
"But then I managed to get loose and Bilbo told me to get Pippin and run, so, so..."  
Merry choked off, terrified that something had happened to the others.  
Thorin turned around, disgusted at the thought of slave traders, which apparently was what had happened.  
"It's alright," said Dis comfortingly. "You're safe." She turned around, thinking about various ways to catch and dismember slavers, and started at the sight of her two sons, remembering they were there. "Fili, Kili." called Thorin, without even needing to turn around. "Get out. Go play with Ori, or Gimli, or help Dwalin or go bother Balin. I don't care, just leave us alone."  
Fili hesitated, opening his mouth. He was, after all, old enough to be considered an adult, and he wasn't just going to go running at Thorin's word...  
"Now." barked his Uncle, and they both ran. No matter how old you were, or even who you were; when Thorin gave an ORDER, you obeyed.  
"Where did you last see the others?" he asked. "I don't know." whispered Merry, shame-faced, and then Pippin bounced up. "I do! There was a big hill with stones. Like a fort."  
"Amon Sûl?"  
"W-w call it Weathertop." said Merry. "But we weren't really that close. We were between here and there."  
Thorin nodded. "Weathertop and Amon Sûl: they are one and the same. We will send men to look for them. Your friends are important to us, Master Merry, but it is even more important that these slavers be stopped. We have suffered from them in the past."  
Merry nodded, understanding, and Pippin curled up like a cat on his lap, ready to sleep as Thorin strode away. "They gonna find Bilbo an' Frodo an' Sam an' then they gonna stop the stinky trolls, right, Merry?"  
"Yeah, Pip."  
"Promise?"  
"I promise."  
Pippin nodded and went quietly to sleep. Dis sighed at the look on the poor lad's sleeping face and then smiled sympathetically at Merry. "Is he your brother then?"  
"No, Miss. We're cousins."  
"Please call me Dis. Cousins? Really?"  
"I've always looked after him. I've got lots of brothers and sisters and he's got... Well, mainly sisters. It's just fate."  
Dis nodded and left the two boys to recover.

*Bilbo's POV*

He had watched Frodo and Sam across the tiny fire. They were huddled together, frightened and cold, clinging to what they recognised. Bilbo could hardly blame them: Frodo wasn't even familiar with Hobbiton yet, and he doubted Sam had ever been outside about a mile of the little village.  
Pippin had been lying with his legs across Bilbo and his head on Merry's lap, in an absolutely exhausted sleep. He was only a tiny fauntling and he'd been walking all day.  
Merry was sitting bolt upright, perfectly awake and tense. Kind of a fight or flight instinct that was, of course, completely futile. He hadn't let his guard down even once.  
Suddenly he turned to Bilbo, eyes scanning the far off humans nervously. "Mr Baggins," he had whispered, moving his hands to show him that they were untied. "I've got free, do you want me to...?"  
Some of the men had turned to come towards them, and Bilbo's hands were chained, and Frodo and Sam were too far away, so he had shook his head sharply. "No Merry, wake Pippin up, quickly. We haven't got enough time."  
The little Hobbit had done so, grabbing his cousin in his arms. "Run! Run!"

And now he, Frodo and Sam were still captured. He had no idea what had happened to Merry and Pippin, though maps had always been his particular hobby. There was a Dwarvish settlement near here: he just hoped they had been found.

*Back with Pip and Merry*

Thorin walked straight out of the tent and towards Dwalin. They'd need warriors for this kind of rescue-y, raid-y thing. He then, of course, remembered that this was where he'd sent Fili and Kili, and Kili presumed he'd come to see them, with all the innocent arrogance of the very young. Fili recognised it for what it was: him seeking Dwalin to help get rid of the slavers... that boy was too sharp by half.  
"Uncle! How are the 'obbits?"  
"Hobbits, Kili. H-oo-bits."  
"How are the hobbits?"  
"Fine."  
Fili grinned at the comic nature of his brother's enthusiasm and his uncle's gruffness, and moved Kili lightly off to play so that they weren't in Dwalin and Thorin's way.  
"What's this the boys have been telling me about Halflings?"  
"Two of them, children, were found wandering the hills. They were taken by slavers."  
"Ah. I'll gather some weapons, then?"  
"That seems to be for the best. It's only a small group, humans, and they've only taken a couple of hobbits. It makes their crime no less, but it should be easier to tackle."  
"I'll get my axe. And Gloin and Bifur, and as many as the rest of the forge can spare."  
"Thank you, Dwalin."  
He spun around, seeing Fili and Kili about a centimetre from his face, and jumped backwards with a muffled curse. "Mahal!"  
"Can I come? Please, Uncle."  
"Me too! Me too!"  
"Kili, no. You're too young." Fili's face lit up in hope. "What about me?"  
"...perhaps."  
Fili beamed. "You are just about old enough for a first chance at battle." Fili whooped and bounced on the spot, turning towards his home, and Thorin's eyes widened in alarm. "Don't tell Dis!"

*Bilbo's POV*

It had been two nights since Merry and Pippin had run off, and they were coming nearer to the towns of men.  
Frodo had fallen on the road and one of the men (trolls, as Pippin had fittingly labelled them) had come towards him, yelling and threatening. And of course Sam had tried to come to Frodo's rescue and earned a black eye for his trouble, and now they were huddled quite a way from the campfire, Sam and Frodo sleeping fitfully while Bilbo dutifully kept watch. He didn't know for what.  
A tap on his shoulder startled him and he spun around to see a slight, golden-haired young Dwarf leaning over him, eyes shining. "Are you Bilbo Baggins?"  
"What?! Yes, yes I am, but h-"  
"My name is Fili. We found your little cousins on the hills, and my Uncle Thorin said that slavery is a curse and we're rescuing you. And we are. They sent me to get you and the little ones so you don't get hurt in the fighting."  
Bilbo's brow furrowed apologetically. "I'm chained; I can't try to run like that. Untie Frodo and Sam though, please."  
" 'k."  
He did, helping the confused two of them to their fuzzy feet. "My Uncle's gonna make a distraction..."  
A group of heavily armed dwarves broke suddenly into the men's camp, screaming in Khuzdul and brandishing their weapons above their head. "There they go. Come on, run!"  
He looked over his shoulder as he took the two little boys' hands. "Bilbo, you might want to move!"

"What are you doing?!" screamed Frodo, trying to twist out of Fili's grip. "That's my uncle, you can't leave him!"  
"It's ok, he'll be alright. That's my people, they're going to save him. They're killing the horrid men."  
But little Frodo wouldn't listen. He let go of Fili's hand entirely, running forward. And, naturally, Sam followed him. "Wait for me, Frodo!"  
"No!"  
Their shouts were lost in the noises of the fierce battle. Fili rushed forward, looking for his tiny charges, only for one of the men to smash into him. Terrified and out of his depth, Fili tried to draw his dagger, but the man brought the hilt of his sword down on the little dwarf's head and he collapsed into oblivion, panicked thoughts of uncles and hobbits circling his brain.

He woke to Thorin and Dis kneeling over him, shouting. Not AT him, nor really TO him, just shouting. He couldn't make out the words.  
The second his eyes opened, his mother pulled him into a crushing embrace. "Fili, lananubukhs!"  
"Uh...mother..."  
"Dis, I'm not sure he can breathe."  
"Oh, Fili! We were so worried!" Dis twisted around and smacked the side of Thorin's head. "Letting him go into battle, he's barely more than a Dwarfling-"  
"I'm forty one." A very, very important thing flashed through his memory and he struggled to get up. "The Hobbits? Are they alright?"  
"They're fine." Thorin's answer was short enough, but he moved to one side so that Fili could see where Frodo, Sam and Merry were talking in hushed voices and Bilbo was trying to dislodge Pippin from his right leg. The sound of a frustrated older hobbit drifted gently across from the other side of the hills: "Peregrin Took, release me at once."  
"No! No no no no no no no-"  
"Merry! Help!"  
"-no no no no no no no no no no no-"  
"That's your new favourite word, isn't it?"  
"Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes-"  
"Okey dokey, Pip. Stop that now."  
"No no no no no no no-"  
"Please."  
"-no no no no no no no-"  
Fili turned back and beamed at Thorin and Dis. "Will they go home now?"  
"Yes, and they have made us an offer."  
"What?"  
"Of a place to go. Somewhere better than this to live."  
Kili had wandered up behind them, a sure sign that the battle was over and the danger passed. No one would let the tiny prince anywhere near otherwise. "We gonna go to the Shire, Fee!"  
"What?!"  
"Until we can reclaim Erebor." muttered Thorin darkly into his beard. "In which case, Hobbits the like of those would be most helpful. An army of Dwarves could not face down Smaug, but if all Hobbits are as resilient as these brave few..."  
Fili nodded, not really listening. His Uncle talked of Erebor often, and he'd never seen it. In his heart, he wasn't really sure it existed.  
"Does that mean we have to pack up all our stuff again?" His voice was weary, especially for that of someone only forty one years old. It broke Dis's heart and she gathered him up in another hug.  
"C'mon!" yelled Kili. "Les go play with the 'obbits."  
He grabbed Fili by the hand and dragged him towards the still wary Halflings.  
What would it be like, wondered the little prince, to live with Hobbits?

They would find out, soon enough.


End file.
